Great Burlington

Constitutional Monarchy of Great Burlington
Flag
Motto: "Be brave, Fear God, Honor the King! "
Anthem: "God Save the King"
Status	Independent State
Capital	Saint Justin
Largest city	Yorkton
Official languages	Anglish
Demonym(s)	Burlingtonian
Government	Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy
• Monarch	King Michael I
• Prime Minister	Jacob Rees-Mogg
Legislature	Parliament (House of Commons & House of Knights)
Establishment
• Constitutional Monarchy	1831
Population
• 2018 census	35,000,000
GDP (nominal)	estimate
• Total	$971.41 Billion
• Per capita	$27,421.32
Currency	Gold Pound (GBP)
Time zone	UTC +5
Date format	dd/mm/yyyy
Driving side	left
Calling code	+77
Internet TLD	.gb

The Constitutional Monarchy of Great Burlington commonly called "The G.B or UK", is a sovereign country in western Europa. Great Burlington has an estimated population of 35 million. The nation is made up of three provinces, (Burlington, Whales, and Knighton, one of which, Whales has homerule), 650 constituencies, and 15 counties.

Great Burlington maintains good relations with most of its nearest neighbors. The Nation has maintained an anti-socialist approach to domestic relations and is often considered an isolationist nation keeping a small circle.

Geography

Most of the country consists of lowland terrain, with mountainous terrain in the north-west. The capital is Saint Justin. The largest city is Yorkton.

Climate

Temperate climate, with plentiful rainfall all year round. The temperature varies with the seasons seldom dropping below −11 °C (12 °F) or rising above 35 °C (95 °F).

History

The Absolute Monarch of Great Burlington lived a long reign under the monarch for 417 years until the year 1831 when King Jeb the 7th signed the current constitution with the threat of civil war looming. Thus creating the Constitutional Monarchy of Great Burlington. King Jeb, and the rebels came together and created a parliament to balance the power between the monarch and the people.

Originally the land of Great Burlington was separated between three different kingdoms that for hundreds of years warred against one another. These kingdoms were the kingdom of Whales, Burlington, and Knighton. In the 16th century, the Kingdom of Burlington began to gain an advantage and began absorbing Knighton into itself becoming "Great" Burlington. The last kingdom to unite to Burlington was the Kingdom of Whales in 1885 when the Monarch of Whales heir married the Monarch of Burlington's heir. The position of the Monarch is passed down hieratically, and has for almost 500 years seen an unbroken succession of Monarch's pertaining to the Royal family.

Throughout the late 1940's Great Burlington was involved in the "Great war" which was a war between Great Burlington and many of its neighbors over a verity of different issues.(OOC: If one of my neighboring nations would like to add to this feel free) After the war Great Burlington isolated itself from the rest of Europa with the Tories taking the domestic stance known as "splendid isolation." In modern times the Liberal Whigs have campaigned from closer ties to Eurpoa, and current PM Tory Jacob Rees-Mogg has taken his own stance at "bringing back Great Burlington into Europa while maintain a small circle." This can be seen recently through the military and free trade agreements with Youtabonia

Throughout the 1970's and 1980's Great Burlington politics was dominated by Margaret Thatcher and the Tories. The tenure of Mrs. Thatcher saw Great Burlington experience levels of record employment, skyrocketing economy, and saw the development of the Great Burlington army into the modern day. Her legacy is found in that she changed Tory party economic dogma of protectionism into free market capitalism, or "Thatcherism." as the LW's turned to a mixed economy. Also, she is remembered for privatizing many industries in G.B. She is championed as being the most successful politicians in Great Burlington history.

Following Thatcher's reign came her successor Michael Portillo. Portillos time as Prime minister was pretty much keeping the policies of his mentor Margaret Thatcher alive. This served him and the Tories well as the won the 1992 election with a strong majority of 347.

The Tories surprisingly lost the 1997/1994 elections when Gerorge Bushton and the Liberal Whigs won 331 seats in the commons. Bushton passed bills expanding the welfare state and raised taxes.

From 1999-2002 as a result of the Hung Parliament which saw PM Michel Heseltine and the Tories win 311 seats the Tories broke protocol and formed a coalition government with the Welsh Parliamentary League. Whales was given Home rule. This saw Whales gain its own parliament, and is now more similar to the RL Scotland devolved parliament, although its powers can be overruled by the national Parliament.

From 2002-2005 the Heseltine administration lost a vote of no confidence thus a general election was called. This saw Gordon Brown and the Liberal Whigs win 388 seats in the commons.

From 2007-2010 G.B suffered one of the worst financial crisis it has ever seen. As a result then Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, lost a vote of no confidence in the House of Commons, thus a general election was called. This saw long time Tory M.P Benjamin Disraeli become Prime minister after beating Gordon Brown in a landslide victory that had the Tories at 388 seats.

The Disraeli tenure lasted from 2010/2007 till 2019/2016 and saw G.B rise out of the ashes of the great financial crisis of 2010 and return to an economic player in Europa and abroad. Disraeli like his Tory predecessors continued to build on G.B's military. Disraeli improved many of the nation's working conditions, improved the nation's housing and was extremely popular with the public with his lowest approval rating being at 64% during the 2018/2015 economic slowdown.

In 2019/2016 he stepped down as PM due to health reasons. This saw his Chancellor of the exchequer, Jacob Rees-Mogg become PM during a party meeting.

In January of 2019/2016 the longtime Queen Lorretta passed away after 58 years on the Throne. This saw her Son and heir, Michael to succeed her on the throne.

In 2020/2017 a general election was called by the new Monarch King Michael the First, to give his government a mandate from the people since Rees-Mogg was appointed after Disraeli stepped down. This election saw Rees-Mogg and the Tories win in a landslide which saw them gain 350 seats.

In August of 2020/2017 the Great Burlington Parliament voted to return the nations monetary system to the Gold standard. The implementation of this will take place in March 2021.

The December of 2020/2017 the Liberal Whig party split with 48 mps leaving to create the democrat party.

In 2021/2018 Great Burlington and Youtabonia signed military and free trade agreements bringing the two nations into closer relations.

Politics

Government

Great Burlington's Parliament consists of four bodies. The Monarch, the House of Knights, the House of Commons and the Monarch's court.

The House of Commons is elected by the people and serve till parliament is dissolved. The House of Knights is made up of those appointed by the Monarch, bishops from the CoB, and hereditary peers. They serve either till death, or retirement. Legislation is solely introduced in the House of Commons but cannot become law without passing the Knights. If the proposed bill passes the commons it moves up to the house of knights.

Once in the hands of the knights, they can either edit the bill and pass it back down to the Commons, or can move it along to the Monarch to be signed into law. The Monarch has a veto, but this can be overruled by a majority vote in both houses of parliament.

The Parliament consists of two major political parties, the conservative, Tories, and the liberal, Liberal Whigs. Each party elects a party leader. Once a general election is called, which ever party has a majority of seats within the house of commons has their leader becomes the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister then forms a cabinet to run the government with the permission and guidance of the monarch. The Monarch can impeach a government and appoint a new one without calling an election, but this can be overruled by a majority vote in both houses.

The nations highest court is the King's (or Queens's) court which consists of 12 members of the House of Knights who are appointed by the Monarch, and serve till death, or retirement. The supreme court is the highest court in all matters under Burlington and Welsh law. It is the court of last resort and the highest appellate court in Great Burlington. The Supreme Court also has jurisdiction to resolve disputes relating to devolution in Great Burlington. The Supreme Court meets on Parliament hill. The Supreme Court is much more limited in its powers of judicial review than the constitutional or supreme courts of some other countries. It cannot overturn any primary legislation made by Parliament. However, it can overturn secondary legislation if, for example, that legislation is found to be ultra vires to the powers in primary legislation allowing it to be made

The nation is known abroad for its Parliamentary antics and jeering.

At the moment these are the numbers of both houses of Parliament. House of Commons: 650 seats: Tories:350, Liberal Whigs:222, Democrat Party 48, Welsh Parliamentary league: 16, Knightion Unionist Party 14 ~ House of Knights: 226 seats: Tories:129. Liberal Whigs:63, Bishops: 26, Democrats 10. WPL: 10, KUP: 9

Foreign Affairs

Great Burlington is apart of the continent of Europa. The nation has often been described as an isolationist or non interventionist country keeping only a small amount of nations it trades with, and is only a formal ally to a few nations within the Europa continent. The nations foreign policy was described by former Foreign Secretary Brian Derby as the following "It is the duty of the Government of this country, placed as it is with regard to geographical position, to keep itself upon terms of goodwill with all surrounding nations, but not to entangle itself with any single or monopolising alliance with any one of them; above all to endeavour not to interfere needlessly and vexatiously with the internal affairs of any foreign country."

Military

The armed forces of Great Burlington—officially, His Majesty's Armed Forces—consist of three professional service branches: the Royal Navy, Royal Marines and the Royal Air Force with extra funds put into the Navy.

The forces are managed by the Ministry of Defense and controlled by the Defense Council, chaired by the Secretary of State for Defense. The Commander-in-Chief is the monarch, to whom members of the forces swear an oath of allegiance. The Armed Forced are charged with protecting Great Burlington and its overseas territories, promoting the global security interests and supporting international peacekeeping efforts. Great Burlington possesses a submarine nuclear weapon program known as "Bulava."

Economy

The economy is almost entirely privatized, ran by arms manufacturing, oil production, agriculture, coal, nuclear, fishing, steel making, shipbuilding, train manufacturing, automobile industry, and the woodchipping industry.

The current governing Tory party has been split between two economic groups; protectionists, and the free trading Thatcherites. But every leader since Margarete Thatcher has taken free trade economic policies. Great Burlington mostly trades with countries outside of Europa, and places tariffs on Europan nations. This is due to the Tory parties commitment to protecting many of their long-standing industries.

Media

The most popular television channels in the nation are; "Sun T.V", "GBB", "ITV", and "TB3".

24 news outlets are; the liberal "ITVNN", Conservative "Sun24", strict centrist "GBNB", and the parliament run "Parliament T.V Commons", "Parliament T.V Knight's".

Major newspapers are; Strict Centrist "The daily record", Liberal "The evening standard", liberal classical liberal "Vanity fair", Conservative "the daily mail", Conservative "the Gazette", Conservative "the Salisbury review", Weekend papers are; "the weekend record", "the weekend standard", "the mail on Sunday" and "the Gazette weekend".

Most popular radio stations are; LBC, GBR24, Kilo, parliament radio, SJR, GBTR, new824, classical 24, Sun Radio, ItvRN, RadioAir, Yorktown Radio, Sportstalk24, GBRN.

The internet is available but is heavily regularized by the government. Pornographic websites are banned.

Energy

Nuclear, Coal, wind.

Demographics

• Population: 35 million

Language

Your either speaking English or Welsh but probably English. Scottish accents in Whales. Posh accents in Burlington and Knighton. Brooklyn/British type accents in Yorkton and surrounding areas.

Religion

The national religion is Western rite Christian Orthodoxy~ Orthodox Church of Burlington. 84.5%-Orthodox Church of Burlington. 7.1%-Lutheran Church of Great Burlington. 2%-Presbyterian. 3%-Jewish, 2%-Atheist/not religious

Culture

The hard-nosed, hard-working, devout population of 35 million Burlingtonians are highly moralistic and fiercely conservative. Orthodox Christian culture. Has brought forth many contributions to Philosophy, art, cuisine, and literature. High amounts of Patriotism. (Similar to how the English view the French, this is how the people of Great Burlington view Adaptus.)

Sports

Most popular sports are association football, baseball, hockey, rugby union, golf, boxing, amateur wrestling, professional wrestling and horse and dog racing. Fishing and hunting, especially fox hunting, are well apart of Great Burlington culture.

Cuisine

Great Burlington is famous for its long history of farming, and agriculture. Great Burlington is known for its beer and beer brewing, where often after Sunday Mass the whole town meets at the local pub for the famous "Beer and a burger."

Television

Great Burlington has a long intellectual history of debates and public exchange of ideas with the highly popular "Debate Night" on GBNB happening weekly since 1972 where two individuals debating a topic from a range of different ideas. All debates in Parliament are shown live on "Parliament t.v" with Prime Ministers Questions being especially popular and famous throughout the region. The Cartoon and sitcom Character "Andy Capp" which appears in The Salisbury Post and on Sun, is seen as a national character of Great Burlington.

Architecture

Old and new traditional gothic era architecture throughout the land.